


Hit Hard

by EldritchSandwich



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roller Derby, F/F, First Meetings, Fluffy Sandwich, Gratuitous Business Cards, Matchmaking, Meet-Cute, Romantic Comedy, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 08:42:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14973395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EldritchSandwich/pseuds/EldritchSandwich
Summary: Asami knows her best friend Lena needs to take a break from her work-life imbalance. What better way to do just that than to go watch her girlfriend Korra's roller derby team with absolutely no ulterior motive whatsoever?





	Hit Hard

There was a long, awkward pause during which Lena was almost positive she was joking.  
  
It would hardly be the first time Asami had said something ridiculous, just daring Lena to call her on it. As sweet and nurturing as she was there was a wild side to her, one that had been more obvious back in boarding school than now that they’d taken over their families’ respective companies. But then, that wild side was also part of why Asami breaking out “You know you should come see my girlfriend’s roller derby team” in the middle of lunch was actually perfectly believable.  
  
“Korra plays roller derby,” Lena said flatly, though even as it left her mouth she had to admit it wasn’t really that much of a stretch; Asami’s girlfriend resembled nothing so much as a butch little Golden Retriever puppy, after all, and roller derby did seem like exactly her kind of thing. Asami smiled.

"Look, I know it's not your usual Saturday night, but really, I think you'll like it."

Lena rolled her eyes. Despite that nurturing streak, Asami had also always been the more...well, adventurous of the two of them, what with the test-driving race cars and so on. As Lena liked to put it, _she_ took martial arts classes because her family had instilled in her a deep paranoia about being able to defend herself; Asami took them for _fun_.

"I don't know, I've been really busy lately, with the merger and everything..."

"Exactly, which is why you need to take some time off and clear your head. It's just like back in school, you'd spend a whole weekend studying, no food, no sleep, until you didn't even realize you weren't retaining the information anymore..."

"And you had to drag me outside and remind me what sunlight was, I know, I know." Lena looked at Asami over her salad; she wouldn't have called the look in Asami's eyes 'begging,' because that wasn't nearly smug enough; they both already knew what she was going to say. Lena sighed. "Okay, fine. You win."

"Great! They've got a match this Saturday. I'll text you the address."

Lena rolled her eyes. "I can't wait."

"Come on, have I ever been wrong before?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

Asami smirked. "Trust me. You're gonna like this."

* * *

"Welcome, derby fans, to Mason Center, home of the Republic City Rollergirls!" The cheerful voice booming over the loudspeakers was met with cheers from the bleachers around them as Asami guided Lena through the surprisingly dense crowd toward a section of empty seats. "Tonight's match-up is gonna be a doozy: fan favorites Natty City versus the Charm City High Rollers!"

As Lena sat down next to Asami amid a chorus of cheers and boos, she leaned in and still had to shout over the noise. "So how does this work exactly?"

Asami leaned forward, pointing out toward the women milling around the floor. One team, on which Lena recognized the stocky brown form of Asami's girlfriend Korra, was dressed in blue, while the other was wearing green. "Okay, do you see the girls with the stars on their helmets?" Lena followed Asami's finger; it was hard to make out much more than the star from this distance, but the one in blue had a blond ponytail sticking out the back of her helmet and the one in green didn't seem to have much hair at all. "Those are the jammers. Basically, everyone skates around in a circle, and the jammers get points for everyone on the other team they pass, and the blockers on the other team try to stop them."

Lena nodded. "So why does Korra have a stripe on her helmet?"

"She's the pivot. She can become the jammer mid-game if they can hand off the star. She also calls the shots in play, kind of like a quarterback." Asami glanced over at Lena's narrowed eyes as she absorbed the rules. "Oh. See, in football, the quarterback—"

"Screw you, Asami," Lena said with no hint of malice, "I know what a quarterback is."

"Right, of course," Asami said off-handedly, "all those jocks you dated in high school."

As Lena shoved her aside with her shoulder and Asami chuckled, a woman in white who Lena figured must be a referee skated out into the middle of the floor and blew a whistle, and the crowd began to quiet down as the two teams formed up along the outside of the track, the two jammers at the back. When the crowd was silent, there was another whistle blast and the pack of women down on the track exploded into motion.

The blonde Natty City jammer exploded past her counterpart, ducking under the arms of two blockers before they even had a chance to react and easily making it to the front of the melee. Another referee blew her whistle and pointed at the blonde as she pulled ahead; Lena didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, but judging from the cheers she assumed it was the former. The green jammer was only just clearing the pack as the blue one sped down the track, quickly coming back up on it from behind. She dodged the same two blockers on her way into the thickest part of the pack, her teammates holding the others at bay and making it possible for her to shoulder through. As soon as she was clear the blonde put her hands on her hips, and another whistle sounded just as the green jammer reached the back of the pack, throwing her head back in frustration as the crowd cheered.

As the skaters moved back together, Lena turned to Asami. "Okay...what just happened?"

"That was a jam. Like...a round. Supergrrl was the first one out of the pack, so that made her the lead jammer, which meant she got to choose when scoring ended. So she booked it and cleared the entire pack and then ended the jam before Charm City could score."

Lena looked up at the scoreboard, where the attendant had flipped the numbers over to show Natty City with four points and Charm City with none. She shook her head. "Okay. Sure. Let's just go with it."

As the whistle blew again, Lena leaned in to watch.

* * *

An hour later...well, Lena Luthor wasn't necessarily the biggest roller derby fan in the world, but it was growing on her. Both teams had swapped out various skaters in different positions as the game went on, but one thing remained constant: Korra, the blonde with the ponytail, and a lanky woman with short red hair were running away with the entire game.

As the seconds ticked down on the second period the blonde was jamming again, still moving as fast and hitting as hard as she had at the beginning of the game. _Jesus,_ Lena couldn't help thinking, _that girl's got stamina_. As she approached the pack from behind, Korra reached back to grab her arm, whipping her forward to barrel past the knot of other blockers and clearing the pack in one fell swoop. When the blonde's hands slapped her hips again, Lena found herself jumping up and cheering along with everyone else.

Natty City had won handily, the fans whooping as the entire fifteen-woman team swarmed the track to embrace and celebrate. Asami grabbed Lena's hand, tugging her out of her seat and down toward the track just as her celebrating girlfriend turned toward her, a huge grin splitting her face. "Babe! Hey, did you see that?"

Asami jumped into Korra's arms for a kiss that made Lena and several of Korra's teammates look away and blush. "You were amazing," Asami said as she pulled back. "You're always amazing. And Kara was on fire!"

"I know, right?"

Lena cleared her throat. "Hi, Korra."

Korra turned toward her with a wince. "Hi, Lena. Asami told me you were coming, I, uh...I hope it wasn't too much?"

Lena chuckled. "Just enough."

"Well then why don't you come meet the team?" Before Lena could answer one way or the other, Korra was ushering various blue-shirted women in their direction. "This is Opal, she's our newbie." The small brown-skinned girl with the bob smiled shyly as Korra ruffled her hair. "Then over there we've got Amaya, Sara, Zari...oh, Alex! C'mere. This is Alex Danvers."

Alex turned out to be the lanky redhead, the one who seemed to be the team's most brutally efficient blocker. She nodded and smiled. "Nice to meet you."

"And this is her little sister Kara."

Lena caught sight of a familiar blond ponytail as Alex stepped aside. Then she promptly forgot how to breathe.

The blonde, Supergrrl, the one whose strength and speed and stamina she'd been admiring all game, was, uh...what was the word? _Hot_. The huge smile, the flowing blond curls, the body under that t-shirt...Lena shook her head.

"Uh...Lena. Luthor."

Kara smiled. "Nice to meet you, Lena Luthor. Was this your first time?"

"What? Yes! Roller derby, yes."

"So what do you think?"

Lena cleared her throat. "I, uh...I like what I see."

Kara's eyes flicked down Lena's body, and she bit her lip. Lena felt her heart thump. "Good."

"Oh, Kara, here," Opal said, and Kara turned toward her to take...something; Lena wasn't paying attention to what because she was taking the opportunity to breathe. When Kara turned back, she was wearing black plastic glasses, and Lena almost had a heart attack again at how they somehow managed to make the cutest girl she'd ever seen look even cuter.

Nerd glasses, face of a cherub, arms like tree trunks...she was in so much trouble.

"Do you want to come?"

"What?" Lena jumped and shook her head as Korra's words hit home.

"We're all going out for booze and carbs to celebrate. Do you want to come?"

Lena looked back and forth between Kara's captivating smile and Korra and Asami's knowing grins, then sighed. It looked like she didn't really have a choice, did she?

* * *

"Korra really loves this place," Asami said as they streamed into the noodle shop, the two of them lagging behind the crowd of rollergirls. "It's cheap, they're good at accommodating large groups, they come here after games all the time."

"You can cut the crap, you know."

Asami raised her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"You think I don't know that this was all a setup?"

Asami laughed. "What? With who?"

Lena's cheeks flushed. "Kara."

Asami's eyes went wide. "What? I have no idea what you mean..."

"You know you're not nearly as good a liar as I am."

Asami smirked. "So does that mean you weren't staring at Kara like you wanted to eat her for dinner?"

Lena's cheeks just went redder as Asami chuckled victoriously and led her into the restaurant.

'Everyone good with beer?" Alex asked to general nods as Lena and Asami took the last two empty seats at the two tables they'd pushed together by the windows. Asami sat next to Korra, leaving the only other empty seat—purely by coincidence—between her and Kara. Kara gave her another smile as she sat down, and Lena smiled back. When she realized more than a few people around the tables were looking at them, Lena turned back and cleared her throat.

"So, uh, what's good here?"

"Uh, everything," Kara said. "All the noodles are fantastic—the peanut sauce is so good—but whatever else you get you have to get the potstickers, they're amazing..."

"Okay, no, don't listen to my sister," Alex interjected, "she's a food vacuum. She just wants you to order potstickers so she can eat them off your plate because she's a parasite and it's what she does."

Kara stuck her tongue out, and Lena laughed. "It's okay, I don't mind sharing."

"Well then you two are gonna get along great."

Kara shot her another smile, and Lena blushed.

* * *

While they were waiting for the food, Lena tried to concentrate on just being part of the conversation and not completely making a fool out of herself. It helped that Kara was so naturally talkative, all smiles and breathless enthusiasm, as eager to keep her in the conversation as she was about seemingly everything else; Lena had thought Korra was a Golden Retriever, but Kara blew her out of the water.

"So what do you do, Kara?"

Kara pushed her glasses up her nose with a bashful smile. "Oh! Uh, I'm a writer with CatCo Magazine. That's actually how I met everybody here, I wrote a story on roller derby being a way to empower women and...well, turns out I was right, and now here I am!" Lena chuckled. "What about you?"

Lena took a sip of her beer and cleared her throat. "Actually I'm the CEO of L-Corp."

There were a few impressed 'oohs' from around the table, while Zari stroked her thumb across her chin. "Uh...isn't that the company that had to like rebrand and everything after that massive corruption scandal?"

Lena flinched, as did Zari when the freckled blonde Sara elbowed her in the ribs. "Dude, seriously? At dinner?"

Lena swallowed. "That was...my brother. And we're trying to put that behind us, so..."

"Ignore my girlfriend," Amaya said with a sharp look at Zari, "she's an asshole."

"Yeah, all female CEOs with felonious male family members are welcome here," Alex added with a wink at Asami. Lena chuckled. When she glanced back in Kara's direction to find the blonde giving her a warm smile, she couldn't help but smile back.

* * *

By the time the food came, Lena was just about as relaxed as she'd been in months. Her world was so full of men, posturing CEOs and lawyers and financiers all trying to get into her company, her pants, or both...thinking back, it was hard to remember the last time she'd gotten to just sit down with a bunch of women and be herself.

"So, let me get this straight," she said, gesturing with her beer bottle and chuckling internally at the irony. "Your girlfriend," she pointed the bottle at Sara, then at Alex, "is your partner on the police force."

"Right."

"And your girlfriend," she pointed at Alex, then at Asami, "is your CFO."

"Yep."

"And Opal's boyfriend has a brother who's also a cop and who Korra and Asami both dated..."

"Yeah," Sara said with a smirk, "we're just one big twisted incestuous bisexual family."

Opal choked on a mix of laughter and beer, and Amaya patted her on the back as Lena shook her head. "Okay then. This has been a night for learning new things."

Alex raised her beer. "Hey, a toast to that! To learning new things!"

"Hear, hear," Zari said as she raised her soda.

Their bottles clinked together, and Lena laughed before taking another drink.

"So what about you, Lena, are you seeing anyone?" Amaya asked pointedly, and before Lena could do so much as get embarrassed that apparently everyone was in on the fix Asami butted in.

"Oh no, she's single. Aren't you, Lena?"

Lena's eyes slid toward Kara, who was wincing at her embarrassment but also couldn't quite hide what Lena thought was a flicker of interest behind her eyes. As their eyes locked, Lena cleared her throat. "I'm single," she murmured; she wasn't even sure anyone other than Kara would have been able to hear. Kara's eyes broke from hers so she could take another sip of her beer, but not before Lena noticed the tiny little smirk at the corner of her lips.

* * *

"Well thanks for...everything. Tonight was a blast."

"Any time." Alex leaned in to give Lena a quick hug. "You'll always be welcome in our cheering section."

Lena chuckled. "I might just take you up on that."

As the other women drifted out into the parking lot, including Korra and Asami waving at her as they passed by carrying a very drunk Opal, Sara veered off to offer her a business card. "You ever want to spend a day out on the water and recharge—no phones, no work, no distractions—you just give us a call."

Lena glanced down at the card, at _Captain Sara Lance, Waverider Tours_ , and shook her head softly as Sara joined Zari and Amaya. These women were...something else.

"Lena?" Lena jumped, her eyes shooting up from the card to find Kara standing in front of her, smiling awkwardly. "Hi."

"H...hi."

Kara brushed her hair behind her ear with a grimace. "So...I mean...obviously our friends were, you know...trying to set us up."

Lena could only chuckle. "Yeah, I got that feeling too." She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't...if it embarrassed you, or..."

Kara laughed. "Me? I was gonna say the same thing to you!" She ducked her head, looking up at Lena from over the rim of her glasses. "I just...I had a really good time getting to know you, and...I don't know, I don't want you to think that I'm just giving you my number because everyone was trying to pressure us and—"

"Wait you're giving me your number?"

Kara winced. "Uh...yes. If that's...okay?"

"Yes!" Lena blurted out, then blushed. "I mean...if you want to."

Kara grinned. "Good." Their eyes met, a smile growing on Lena's face too, then Kara shook her head. "Oh, right! I, um...here, I actually have business cards, I can't believe I actually have business cards but I got them made for when I was talking to people for stories, and..." Now Kara was the one who was blushing. "Here."

She thrust the card toward Lena, who just laughed. "Thanks." Lena took the card, her smile starting to fade as she looked it over. _Kara Danvers, Staff Writer_. After a moment she sighed and slipped it into her purse. "You know what, here." Kara's eyebrows rose as Lena handed her a card too. "Just in case...the thing is, I work too much, and I lose track of other parts of my life, and if I forget to call you I don't want you to think that..." As Kara gingerly reached out to take the card, Lena sighed. "I'm not...great at this. Relationships. And I—"

Lena's lips snapped shut as Kara's were suddenly touching her cheek. It was a brief thing, just a peck, but it had the desired effect of making her forget everything she was about to say. When she pulled back, Kara was grinning mischievously. "We'll see about that."

As Kara trotted off to catch up with her sister, giving a final wave in Lena's direction, Lena collapsed bonelessly against the door of her car. She didn't know what the future held, whether she could actually make a relationship work this time, whether her baggage or Kara's stubborn, sunny insistence would win out in the end, but one thing was for sure...

Lena Luthor was _really_ looking forward to her next roller derby game.

**Author's Note:**

> While it never comes up in the story, this AU sees National City and Republic City in a sort of Minneapolis-St. Paul arrangement as twin cities sharing the same metropolitan area. In general, most of the Supergirl characters live on the National City side and most of the Legend of Korra characters live on the Republic City side, but they're effectively sharing a city.
> 
> Also Future Industries produces mostly consumer goods while L-Corp specializes in research and intellectual property, which is why they aren't in competition and it's perfectly fine for their CEOs to be best friends.
> 
> ALSO also I started to come up with derby names for the characters but couldn't really work them in. In addition to Kara as Supergrrl, Alex is Red Alert, Korra is the Avatar of Pain, and Sara, of course, is Lance-a-lot.


End file.
